Mr. Softy Pictures an iPhone

Microsoft climbs aboard the iPhone train.

Today's sign of the tech apocalypse: Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) has chosen the iPhone -- not Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry, not Nokia's (NYSE:NOK) Symbian, not even its own Windows Mobile -- as the debut platform for Seadragon Mobile, a large-image browser.

I love how Alex Daley, group product manager for Mr. Softy's Live Labs in-house incubator, explained his team's rationale to technology blogger Todd Bishop of TechFlash.

"The iPhone is the most widely distributed phone with a (graphics processing unit)," Daley told Bishop. "Most phones out today don't have accelerated graphics in them. The iPhone does and so it enabled us to do something that has been previously difficult to do. I couldn't just pick up a Blackberry or a Nokia off the shelf and build Seadragon for it without GPU support."

In other words, the iPhone's advanced features put it ahead of peers in this area. And other areas, too, according to the most recent worldwide smartphone market share data from Canalys:

Company

Q3 2008 Shipments

% Market Share

Q3 2007 Shipments

% Market Share

Nokia

15.485 mil

38.9%

16.025 mil

51.4%

Apple

6.899 mil

17.3%

1.107 mil

3.6%

Research In Motion

6.051 mil

15.2%

3.298 mil

10.6%

Motorola

2.313 mil

5.8%

2.058 mil

6.6%

High Tech Computer

2.308 mil

5.8%

.850 mil

2.7%

All Others

6.791 mil

17%

7.816 mil

25.1%

Source: Canalys.

This is why Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs won't sell a $99 iPhone at Wal-Mart(NYSE:WMT), Fool. Why go cheap when one of your platform competitors recognizes you've created a winner?

Surely Microsoft has, and will continue to, create plenty of excellent software for its own platforms. But as an Apple investor, I'm glad to see that Mr. Softy is still a grudging admirer of the iEmpire's wares.

Author

Tim Beyers first began writing for the Fool in 2003. Today, he's an analyst for Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova. At Fool.com, he covers disruptive ideas in technology and entertainment, though you'll most often find him writing and talking about the business of comics. Find him online at timbeyers.me or send email to tbeyers@fool.com. For more insights, follow Tim on Google+ and Twitter.